< Psalms 58 >
1 TO THE OVERSEER. “DO NOT DESTROY.” A MIKTAM OF DAVID. Is it true, O silent one, that you speak righteously? Do you judge uprightly, O sons of men?
Unto the end. May you not destroy. Of David, with the inscription of a title. If, truly and certainly, you speak justice, then judge what is right, you sons of men.
2 Even in heart you work iniquities, In the land you ponder the violence of your hands.
For, even in your heart, you work iniquity. Your hands construct injustice on the earth.
3 The wicked have been estranged from the womb, They have erred from the belly, speaking lies.
Sinners have become foreigners from the womb; they have gone astray from conception. They have been speaking falsehoods.
4 Their poison [is] as poison of a serpent, As a deaf cobra shutting its ear,
Their fury is similar to that of a serpent; it is like a deaf asp, who even blocks her ears,
5 Which does not listen to the voice of whisperers, A charmer of most skillful charms.
who will not listen to the voice of charmers, nor even to the enchanter who chants wisely.
6 O God, break their teeth in their mouth, Break down the jaw-teeth of young lions, O YHWH.
God will crush their teeth within their own mouth. The Lord will break the molars of the lions.
7 They are melted as waters, They go up and down for themselves, His arrow proceeds as they cut themselves off.
They will come to nothing, like water flowing away. He has aimed his bow, while they are being weakened.
8 He goes on as a snail that melts, [As] an untimely birth of a woman, They have not seen the sun.
Like wax that flows, they will be carried away. Fire has fallen upon them, and they will not see the sun.
9 Before your pots discern the bramble, As living, He whirls away in His burning anger.
Before your thorns could know the brier, he consumes them alive, as if in rage.
10 The righteous rejoices that he has seen vengeance, He washes his steps in the blood of the wicked.
The just one will rejoice when he sees vindication. He will wash his hands in the blood of the sinner.
11 And man says: “Surely fruit [is] for the righteous: Surely there is a God judging in the earth!”
And man will say, “If the just one is fruitful, then, truly, there is a God judging them on earth.”